Over the holidays I had the opportunity to travel south on the newest Texas toll road, otherwise known as State Highway 130. The 131-mile road was built to ease Austin’s crushing traffic burdens, particularly along Interstate 35, but controversy has dogged the project since the road opened.
The financing for SH 130 has always been shaky. Many in the state complained that the tolls were too high and that it was seeing only half the anticipated traffic it needed to remain viable. The consortium that owns the project was downgraded to junk status by Moody’s Investor Service in 2013. Many Texans say it’s time for the state DOT to take over the project and run it without tolls.
My party and I hit the onramp to SH 130 in the Austin/Round Rock area, and headed south to Seguin, just east of San Antonio. What I discovered was not what I expected—good in some ways and not so good in others.
On the approach, the road is an attractive piece of work, with patterned concrete walls framed in earth toned borders. But to my surprise, there were no toll booths, nobody to give your money to, nobody to ask about the fares or the location of on- and off-ramps. Overhead cameras snap a photo of your license plate as you enter the highway, and every few miles you pass under additional banks of cameras.
Presumably, at the end of 30 days, the state counts up how many times your tag was photographed and where, and sends you a bill. I say presumably because there’s no way to know this for sure. I was in an out-of-state rental car, which raised additional questions. My son, who was traveling with me, found via Google information that said the rental car company would bill me for the tolls and that a “service and handling fee” might be expected.
The individual toll prices were posted above the camera banks: one set of figures for two axles, additional columns for additional axles, and one set of prices for people who subscribe to the toll system and another set of dollar amounts for everybody else. Given that there was a dimwit in a dually leaning on his horn as I entered the on-ramp and the fact that I was driving 80 to 90 mph, there was no way I could read these numbers, let alone keep up with the totals.
So the question became: for some 70 miles of travel are they going to charge me $10 or $25? $50? I have no idea. The rental car company didn’t add any charges when I turned the car in. I suppose I’ll have to wait to see what shows up on the credit card. And what’s the service/handling fee going to be? $10? $100. I’m assuming it will be reasonable, but I don’t like not knowing.
